SUBJECT:Updated Guidelines on Formation,Organization, Operationalization and Strengthening of Barangay Agrarian Reform Council (BARC)

I.Prefatory Statement

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) implementation necessitates active participation of farmers, farmworkers, landowners, as well as cooperatives and other independent farmers' organization in the planning, organization and management of the program.

The BARC was instituted by EO 229 and subsequently affirmed in RA 6657 as the mechanism for grassroots participation in the CARP implementation. The BARC has been indispensable in the program implementation process for the past twenty-two (22) years.TIEHDC

The research studies conducted by institutions external and internal to DAR had reported that the BARC operationalization has difficulties. A BARC Inventory was conducted in the last quarter of 2009 to determine where and what those difficulties are. The data and information from the inventory indicated that 52% of the reported number of BARC needs to be organized, re-organized and strengthened.

With the enactment of the RA 9700, the critical role of BARC is re-emphasized under Sec. 2 of the Declaration of Principles and Policies which contemplates on community-based program implementation.

To ensure that the BARC shall be organized/reorganized as efficient mechanism for grassroots participation in the program implementation, the following guides in the formation, organization/re-organization, capability building and strengthening are hereby prescribed.

II.Scope and Coverage

This Memorandum Circular (MC) shall govern and serve as guide for DAR Provincial and Municipal Offices and other key players in providing assistance and support to the communities in organizing/reorganizing, capability building and strengthening the BARCs, as the case may be, in the following areas:cdrep

1)In barangays where there are landholdings which are included under the 5-year phasing of LAD as stipulated in RA 9700;

2)In areas/barangays where most of the areas are agricultural in land use and zoning; and

3)In areas that are already urbanized but there are still awarded lands or farmers under the leasehold arrangement or lands to be covered under the CARP.

The BARC shall be strengthened in areas where there are majority of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) cultivating and managing their awarded land, such as those in Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs), Special Agrarian Reform Communities (SARCs) or ARC Clusters.

III.Definition of Terms

1.Agricultural Land — refers to land devoted to agricultural activity and not classified as mineral, forest, residential, commercial or industrial land (Sec. 3, (c) RA 6657).IHCDAS

2.Agrarian dispute/conflict — refers to any controversy relating to tenurial arrangements over lands devoted to agriculture, including conflicts or representation in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing or seeking to arrange terms of conditions of such tenurial arrangements.

3.Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD) — is one of the major components of CARP that involves programs and activities for the pursuance of speedy and fair settlement of agrarian disputes and delivery of agrarian reform justice.

4.Arbitration — is a voluntary dispute resolution process in which one or more arbitrators, appointed in accordance with the agreement of the parties, or rules promulgated pursuant to the use of an alternative dispute resolution of the Philippines (RA 9285), resolve a dispute by rendering an award.

5.Indigenous Cultural Community — refers to a group of people sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits and who have, since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized a territory. (RA 7586)DcAEIS

6.Land Acquisition and Distribution (LAD) — is a sub program of the land tenure improvement (LTI) component of the CARP that involves the physical transfer of land ownership to the farmer-beneficiaries in order to emancipate them from landlessness. It may consists of voluntary offer to sell (VOS), compulsory acquisition (CA) or direct payment scheme (DPS) to fast track land transfer process.

7.Land Use — refers to the way a piece of land is utilized, including its allocation, development and management. (DA, AO#8 S. 1998)

8.Land Tenure Improvement (LTI) — is a major component of CARP that is geared towards making the actual tiller an owner of the land he/she tills or in the case of non land transfer by providing him/her security of tenure.

9.Participatory Development — is an approach to empower the community in the development process where the people decide, plan and implement their programs.CAIaDT

10.Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) — is a major final output (MFO) of DAR concerned with the delivery and provision of support services for farmer beneficiaries and affected landowners as stipulated under RA 6657 and affirmed by RA 9700.

11.Quasi-judicial power — is a term which applies to the action, discretion, etc. of a public administrative officers or bodies, who are required to investigate facts, or ascertain the existence of facts, hold hearings, and draw conclusions from them, as a basis for their official action to exercise discretion of a judicial power.

12.Rural women — refers to women who are engaged directly or indirectly in farming and or fishing as their source of livelihood whether paid or unpaid, regular or seasonal, or in food preparation, managing the household, caring for the children, and other similar activities. (Sec. 3, RA 9700)

IV.Policy Statements

1)The BARC shall be multi-sectoral body that enables the community to participate actively in CARP implementation, specifically on the major program components — the Land Tenure Improvement (LTI), Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) and the Agrarian Justice Delivery (AJD). It shall operate on self-help and voluntary service.TAEcCS

2)The formation, organization, operationalization and strengthening of the BARC shall consider gender equality and empowerment of women and other marginalized sector of the community. It is encouraged that representatives from Indigenous People (IP), if any, and Rural Women shall participate in the BARC.

3)Pursuant to the provisions of EO 406, the heads of the CARP implementing Agencies (CIAs) mentioned therein (Sec. 1) including those who may be called upon by the DAR (Sec. 5, last paragraph) shall re-activate the Provincial CARP Implementing Team (PCIT)/Municipal CARP Implementing Team (MCIT). The PARO shall ensure their active involvement in the organizational development and operationalization of the BARC and support its functions relative to LTI, PBD and AJD programs.

4)The DAR's budget allocation for the Field Operations Office (FOO), Support Services Office (SSO), and the Legal Affairs Office (LAO) shall consider BARC activities that fall under their respective CARP components, i.e., LTI/LAD, PBD, AJD. These DAR Offices shall evaluate the Annual Work and Financial plans (AWFPs) of the DARPOs relative to these CARP components and prepare the corresponding national budget proposals for PARC approval.ISCHET

5)The PARC shall allocate funds to DAR — Bureau of Agrarian Reform Information and Education (BARIE) for the capability development and strengthening of BARCs and other CARP implementers. BARIE shall develop and implement BARC Capability Development Program and Strengthening interventions relative to CARP implementation.

6)The DAR through the Planning Service shall ensure that all accomplishments and activities pertaining to BARC are reported. The Regional Directors and Provincial Agrarian Reform Officers shall be accountable in the efficient and effective operationalization of BARCs.

7)The Provincial Agrarian Reform Coordinating Committee (PARCCOM), through the PARO shall coordinate, monitor BARC operation relative to LTI/LAD, PBD and AJD and shall include these concerns in its deliberations. The PARCCOM shall include in their report to the PARC through the PARC Secretariat the BARC matters that are deliberated and acted upon by them.aDHCcE

V.Purpose and Functions of BARC

The BARC shall be the main partner at the community level for the successful CARP implementation. It shall assist in the implementation of land acquisition and distribution, support services delivery and resolution of agrarian disputes at the lowest level.

The BARC composition as provided by DAR AO No. 14, Series of 1990 consists of regular voting members and the ex-officio as non-voting members.acHETI

A.Regular voting members:

The regular voting members are permanent residents of the barangay. They shall perform and manage activities of the AR program implementation in the area.

1.Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries shall be represented by the following sectors:

—EP/CLOA holder

—Agricultural lessee

—ISF beneficiaries

—Amortizing Owner (CLT Holder)

The ARB sectors should have at least one (1) Indigenous Cultural Community representative (if, they are found in the barangay), and a Rural Women representative from the ARB sectors which they belong.ASICDH

2.Representative of landless farmers (tenant) and or regular farmworkers actually tilling the land.

3.Representative of small owner-cultivators i.e., those who own not more than 5-hectares of agricultural land and are actually tilling the land either by him/herself or with the help of family labor and/or hired farmworkers.

4.Representative of agricultural cooperatives/farmers organization from a functional and barangay-based farmers' organization or a cooperative. The PO or cooperative should have a majority of tillers in its membership.

5.Representative of landowners i.e., those who own 5 hectares or less but non-cultivating.

The regular voting members shall have maximum of eight (8) people if all the ARB sectors are found in the area and at least 5 (five) people if not all the ARB sectors are found in the area.aDHScI

B.Ex-Officio non-voting members

The RA 9700 affirms the inclusion of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) as part of the composition of the PARC (Sec. 41). With this provision, it is but necessary that the Municipal Planning Development Council (MPDC) shall have its representative to the BARC. BARC concerns that are municipal in scope shall be discussed in the MPDC.

In the case of Department of Agriculture (DA) which is already devolved to the LGU, the representative shall come from the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO).

The ex-officio non-voting members shall be composed of one (1) representative each from the following:

—Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR ARPT/DF assigned in the area who shall be act as the Secretary)

—Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO)cASTED

—Community Environment and Natural Resources

—Land Bank of the Philippines

—Barangay Council (BC)

—Locally based NGOs. NGOs based on the municipal or provincial level

—Municipal Planning Development Council (MPDC)

The ex-officio non-voting members, except for the BC representative are not permanent residents of the barangay and they have several BARC membership in the municipality/province. These members shall serve as advisory body to the BARC specially on concerns that are related to their respective office mandate. They shall also provide technical and logistic support to the BARC activities in the program implementation.

VII.Officers and Committees

The BARC Officers shall be composed of the following must position:

—ChairpersonTcHDIA

—Vice-Chairperson

—Secretary (automatically the ARPT/DF assigned in the barangay)

—Assistant Secretary

The BARC shall act as a collegial body. Aside from the officers, there shall be various committee who shall implement and manage the BARC Program.

The suggested committees to be created in areas where LAD is a priority are the following:

—Committee on ARBs identification and validation

—Committee on research (landholding documents) and mapping

—Committee on Support Services coordination

—Committee on mediation or arbitration

—Committee on ARB information and educationTaCDcE

As soon as some of the program activities are completed, the committees can be merged to strengthen some committees or evolve to another committee based on the emerging needs of the community.

There shall be established grievance committee which shall be an internal mechanism of the BARC Officers and committee members to discuss and resolve their issues/concerns pertaining to internal conflicts.

VIII.Tenure of Elected Representatives and Officers

The elected sectoral representatives and BARC Officers shall have 3-year tenure of office effective from the date of their oath of office.

Any elected sectoral representatives and BARC Officers who fails to fulfill his/her duties may be removed by a majority vote of members. He/she shall be replaced by the alternate sectoral representative.

In case, the elected BARC Officer and other member shall be elected to public office such as barangay/municipal/city/provincial board member, or there is incident of death/disability, change of residency of the elected BARC officer/member, the vacant position shall be occupied by the Vice-chair/alternate sectoral representative. The vacated Vice-chair position shall be filled up through election from the voting members. The sector that has no representative as a result of filling up of vacant BARC Officer/s position shall also have their election of representative/s. The incumbent BARC member/Officer shall continue the term of Office left by the outgoing member/officer.DCSTAH

The BARC officers and sectoral representatives shall be issued with official identification card (ID) from the Office of the PARO. The BARC IDs shall be valid only during their tenure of office.

IX.Organizing Process

The following activities/processes shall be linked and specified in the performance commitment of the Regional Directors, PAROs and MAROs.

A.Pre Formation

1.The DARMOs shall conduct barangay inventory to identify where BARCs are existing in order to prioritize areas with existing LAD balance, and the areas with majority of agricultural land have ARBs who are still cultivating and managing the productivity system of the land for the BARC re/organizing.

The MARO shall submit the list of priority areas for BARC organizing/reorganizing and strengthening to the PARO.

2.The following activities shall be undertaken simultaneously by the DARPOs and the DARMOs in the pre-formation of the BARC.aATHIE

2.1The PARO shall coordinate a conduct of conference-meeting with the head of respective CIAs, NGO/s, and the PARCCOM to discuss CARP implementation plan of the province, the reactivation of the PCIT/MCIT, and the reorganization and strengthening of the BARC. The DARMOs priority areas for BARC re/organization and strengthening shall be an input to the provincial CARP implementation plan.

2.2The DARMOs shall be responsible in undertaking the following activities in the priority areas for BARC organization and strengthening. The community organizing approach shall be applied in enhancing peoples' participation and in the development/strengthening of the BARC.

The DARMO staff assigned in the area shall coordinate with the Barangay Council (BC) Chairperson, PO/Cooperative leaders, NGO official working in the area and other organized groups such as women's group for them to elect their respective representative to the BARC.

The DARMO staff in the area together with the BC, PO/Cooperative and NGO representatives shall meet in order to plan the conduct of the following community activities/processes:HDTCSI

a)Master Listing of Agricultural Sectors in the Barangay. This shall be done in order to identify, update the list/members of existing sectors in the barangay before they will elect their respective representative. There shall be a process of identifying the members of the different sectors in the barangay in order to involve the community in providing and updating the sectoral information.

b)Sectoral Assembly/Meeting (SA/M). The sectors and their membership identified in the process of master listing shall be mobilized to attend a sectoral assembly-meeting. The sectoral assembly-meeting shall be held in order to: validate the information gathered in the process of master listing the agricultural sectors of the barangay, identify common issues and concerns of the agricultural sectors, orient the sectors of their role in the BARC, the importance of establishing a BARC, and the election of sectoral representatives and their alternates.SEcADa

c)Election of Sectoral Representatives.

The BC, PO/Cooperative, NGO representatives and the ARPT/DF shall compose the election committee who will conduct election of sectoral representatives and their alternates. They will choose among them who will act as the election chairperson.

The basic qualifications of a sectoral representative and an alternate are:

—Filipino nationality and permanent resident of the area;

—Holds no public/official position such as barangay official; and

—Has willingness to render voluntary public service.CSIDEc

The sectoral members shall nominate their nominees for the representative and alternate. The nominees shall be introduced to the sector's assembly before the election. The sectoral members shall vote their representative and alternates by raising their right hand once.

The election chairperson shall count the number of votes of each nominee and post the number opposite the name of the nominees in the tally sheet posted before the sector's assembly. The nominees with the highest number of votes shall be declared as the sector's representative and an alternate.

The ARPT/DF in the area shall prepare election proceedings of sectoral representatives duly signed by the members of the election committee. The elected sectoral representatives and the alternates will fill up personal information sheet as attachment to the election proceedings.

The activities and processes in the pre-formation phase shall be completed within one month from the start of master listing the agricultural sectors in the barangay.EDcIAC

B.Formation and Organization

The MARO shall meet with the MCIT representatives and plan with them the schedule and activities for the assembly-meeting of all the elected sectoral representatives and their alternates together with the ex-officio non-voting members of the BARC composition. The one-day activities and processes of the assembly-meeting shall be for the formation and organization of the BARC in the different barangays.

b.1Briefing Orientation of the BARC

The MARO shall coordinate with the DARPO core team for the conduct of one-day orientation-briefing of the BARC in his/her municipality. The one day activity shall be aimed for the participants to recognize the importance of the role of BARC in the program implementation in their respective areas.

The orientation-briefing shall discuss the CARP imperatives on the people's participation in the program implementation, the BARC roles, function and their composition. It shall discuss the election procedure, introduce election committee members and the BARC officers position to be elected and different committees to be created.CaTcSA

b.2Election of BARC Officers and Creation of Committees

The MARO shall form an election committee composed of 4 (four) members from Barangay, CIT, NGO, PO/Cooperative officials for the BARC Officers Election Committee.

The MARO shall act as the BARC Officers Election Chairperson shall explain the election procedure and introduce the composition of BARC officers election committee before the election proper.

The election of BARC Officers shall be done by barangay. The MARO shall facilitate the nomination of candidates to the position of Chairperson. The names of the nominees shall be entered in a tally sheet posted in front of the assembly.

The sectoral representatives of a barangay shall raise their right hand once to vote their chosen nominee for the position. The number of votes of the nominees shall be counted immediately and posted opposite their name in the tally sheet.aTcHIC

The nominees that has the most number of votes shall be the elected Chairperson. The elected BARC Chairperson shall facilitate the subsequent nomination and election of other BARC officers with the presence of Ex-Officio non-voting members.

b.3Confirmation of Sectoral Representatives and BARC Officers

The elected BARCs officers and sectoral representatives shall be proclaimed in the assembly-meeting. They shall take their Oath of Office before the assembly to be administered by a public officer.

The respective ARPT/DF shall post the roster of sectoral representatives and the BARC Officers in conspicuous places in the barangay for fifteen (15) days.

The MARO shall submit roster of BARC Officers and sectoral representatives per barangay together with the updated masterlist of sectoral groups and the duly signed election proceedings to the PARO copy furnished the PARCCOM.CDaTAI

b.4BARC Preparing the Plan

The BARC Officers and their committees shall plan steps for their first three month operational activities from their assumption of their official functions.

This phase shall be completed within one month at the most from the election of sectoral representatives.

C.BARC Reorganization

In case of BARC reorganization, the existing BARC Chairperson shall call for a meeting of all sectoral groups in the area. The DARMO staff assigned in the area shall facilitate the process outlined from IXI A 2.2 to B. b.1-b.4 for the BARC re-organization.

D.Operationalization and Management

1.Regular MeetingsTCIEcH

The BARC shall conduct regular meetings at least monthly as their venue to plan/develop/implement/monitor. The meeting shall also serve as means to discuss/conduct the suggested outline of activities.

•house rules, policies,

•program and activities,

•deliberations and or resolutions on important issues pertaining program implementation,

•sessions for their continuous learning of AR Law

They shall be equipped with tools such as participatory assessment/paralegal cliniquing and feedbacking mechanism to and from the community to learn and improve their processes and learning from their task.

2.Recording of Activities

The BARC shall implement recording and documentation of their meetings, deliberations, dialogues, mediation/arbitration conferences, attestation and other important activities.

There shall be official format to be used by the BARC for their recording and documentation proceedings.

3.Information Dissemination

The BARC shall disseminate their rules, policies and programs/activities in their community. They shall inform the barangay members of their plans and programs and their operating procedures and policies through their sectoral representatives, information materials such as posters/bulletin boards and other communication strategies.

They shall conduct/assist the DARMO in the urgent dissemination of important information for the program implementation in their respective areas.DHATcE

4.Officer of the Day

The BARC shall establish office and operate through the officer of the day (OD) from the voting members on rotation basis. The OD shall attend to clients coming to the office/station. She/he shall receive and log concerns/queries of the clients to the BARC logbook. At the end of the day, the OD shall report to the BARC Chairperson in oral or written about the client's concern receive on the day. The BARC Officers shall determine concerns that can be addressed by the OD and the BARC as quorum.

E.BARC Capability Development and Strengthening

There shall be a three (3) year BARC Capability Building and Strengthening interventions and BARC Curriculum. The BARC Capability Building and Strengthening interventions shall be immediately pursued as soon as the BARCs are organized and have identified their needs requirements.

The program interventions shall be implemented in four phases which seek to establish: organized BARC which have expanded community participation; functional BARCs which have operational plan on the program implementation, and mainstreamed with the LGU.

The BARIE shall prepare and spearhead the DARCO Composite team in the development, implementation and monitoring of this three-year BARC Capability and Strengthening Plan.

1.Implementation mechanism

The implementation approach shall involve a composite teams of DARCO, DARRO and DARPO in order to fast track delivery and complementation of services to the BARC.

The DARCO composite team shall be composed of BARIE, BARBD, PS, FOO, PARC Secretariat, PDMS, and BALA representatives. They shall perform the following tasks for the BARC Capability Building and Strengthening Program:

•Set the policy and program direction,

•Propose national fund allocation on BARC Capability Building and Strengthening program,cCaEDA

•Design, implement, monitor, evaluate program interventions on BARC Capability Building and Strengthening,

•Develop, install and manage BARC database system of priority provinces,

•Manage BARC data portfolio of the priority provinces.

The DARCO composite team shall adopt prioritization of provinces/municipalities/barangays with big LAD for the implementation of the BARC Capability Building and Strengthening.

The Regional Core Team shall be composed of Legal/Operations/IE/SS Divisions representatives. They shall undertake the following tasks:

•Design, implement, monitor, evaluate regional program interventions on BARC Capability Building and Strengthening,

•Establish and maintain BARC database and project portfolio,

•Technical and consultancy support to the DARPO, DARMO and the BARC.

The BARC capability building and strengthening program shall be lodged in the I&E Division.

There shall be Provincial Core Team composed of Division Chiefs of Operations, Legal, PMEU and the BDCD. The core team shall be responsible on the following tasks:DHATcE

•Develop, implement and monitor program interventions of the province,

•Propose fund allocation of the BARC program in the province,

•Monitor the BARC formation and development,

•Technical and consultancy support to the DARMO and the BARC.

The PARO shall designate the point office responsible for the BARC Program of the province. The point office shall spearhead the program development, implementation, management and monitoring in the areas prioritized by the province for BARC formation, development and strengthening.

2.Phases of Implementation

The implementing mechanism shall be guided by the 3-year time frame of the BARC Capability Building and Strengthening program interventions.ACTEHI

In order to determine the extent of the BARC's achievement in program implementation, quarterly monitoring and evaluation shall be undertaken by the DARMO and the PARCCOM.

3.1The MARO shall report achievement result of the BARCs using a prescribed form provided by the Planning Service and shall be submitted to the BDCD. The BDCD shall consolidate the BARCs' accomplishment report of the province and submit to the PMEU. The PMEU shall submit the BARC accomplishment report of the province to the Regional Planning Division and the latter shall forward the report to the DARCO-Planning Service.

3.2The BARC accomplishment report shall be integrated in the DAR's national accomplishment report.

3.3The PARO/MARO shall supervise and monitor BARC operations and shall include relevant matters in reporting to the PARCCOM's meeting. BARC concerns in the program implementation shall be discussed in the PARCCOM meetings for appropriate action, i.e., referrals of issues to concerned parties and/or inclusion in the PARCCOM's regular reports to the PARC through the PARC Secretariat.ECaITc

3.4The DAR Management shall conduct overall monitoring and evaluation of program intervention and BARC performance results at the end of the 3-year program interventions implementation.

F.Funding Support

1.Funding Allocation

1.1The DAR shall allocate funding support for the program implementation of the BARC Capability Building and Strengthening Program.

1.2The DARMO shall prepare BARC Organization and Operation Plan based from the expected tasks of the BARC in the program implementation in their area.

1.3A cost parameter per province shall be standardized and approved by the PARC Executive Committee.HDTSCc

2.Resource Mobilization

The BARC may mobilize resources through partnership and alliance building with other sectors to be able to support its operation.

HELP CENTER

CONTACT INFORMATION

Copyright Information

All material contained in this site is copyrighted by the Department of Agrarian Reform unless otherwise specified. For the purposes of this demo, information are intended to show a representative example of a live site. All images and materials are the copyright of their respective owners.